20th Sunday of OT Year A Homily

At the Easter Vigil Mass begins in complete darkness until a fire is struck and the Paschal Candle representing the Risen Lord is processed into the church dispelling darkness from its midst. Once the candle reaches the sanctuary the Exsultet (The Easter Proclamation) is chanted recounting the history of salvation, culminating in the declaration of Adam’s happy fault.

“O truly necessary sin of Adam, destroyed, completely by the Death of Christ! O happy fault, that merited so exalted and so glorious a Redeemer!” This does not mean that Adam’s sin was morally good; it means that God’s response to sin (sending Jesus Christ) resulted in a higher state of grace and union with God than humanity possessed even before the Fall.

The Exsultet calls Adam’s sin “happy” not because sin is good, but because of what God did in response to it. As Saint Thomas Aquinas stated in the Summa, “God allows evils to happen in order to bring a greater good therefrom; hence it is written: ‘Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

From Romans we heard pertaining to such disobedience that brought forth an outpouring of God’s mercy. The remedy that God provides due to such disobedience elevates humanity to a higher state than if Adam had never fallen. Redeemed people become partakers of the divine nature, an intimacy with God far exceeding even original innocence in the Garden.

Disobedience remains evil and bad in itself. However, through the lens of such a happy fault, human sin is not a defeat for God, but the ability to pour forth Redemptive Mercy upon us and upon the whole world. Through our human weakness we are able to make room for His mercy, which transforms our spiritual life.

O Happy fault reminds us that failure never has the final word. Despite however many times we fall into sin and repeat a persistent weakness it is easy to have shame and despair instead of making room for the virtue of hope. Instead of running away from God we must remember our total reliance on Him.

The Canaanite woman in our Gospel exemplified such an attitude where she turned to Him in total reliance and thus received an outpouring of His mercy. She does not come demanding healing as something already owed unto her, but in her lowliness she acknowledged her complete dependence upon God’s grace and thus she was told “O woman, great is your faith!”

Let us have such Christian faith modeled after this woman. We must stop giving into despair over our many mistakes, temptations, and sins. Instead let us entrust ourself to His mercy and grace especially that mercy and grace that awaits us in the sacrament of confession. Indeed, there is hope for us, brought forth from that “happy fault, that merited so exalted and so glorious a Redeemer!”

Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary Homily

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. Pope Pius XII stated that this event was a “manifestation of the hope” of all humanity. In the Creed we profess such a hope, “the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” Therefore, we cannot forget that Christ’s redemption redeems the whole human person, body and soul.

As Saint Paul states in his 1st epistle to the Corinthians, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep… But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” 

Mary is the first among “those who belong to Christ” to receive that ultimate promise. She was united to Christ fully (after all she was declared to be “full of grace”), bearing Him in her body and standing by Him at the cross. Her glorified body in heaven serves as a preview of the bodily resurrection that has been promised to every believer at the end of time.

What has already happened to Mary is what the Church as a collective body hopes to experience when Christ restores creation. She has reached the destination toward which every pilgrim Christian is currently walking. May she pray for us that we may seriously come to pursue such a life that leads us towards such Heavenly glory.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!

19th Sunday of OT Year A Homily

Our reading from 1st Kings picks up with Elijah hiding in a cave on Mount Horeb. Prior to this moment he had a lived a life that had experienced great miracles. Fire was just called down from heaven on Mount Carmel to defeat the prophets of Baal. Yet when threatened by Queen Jezebel he panicked, lost faith, and fled into the wilderness.

Despite all the big stuff that Elijah had experienced his heart had not yet been permanently transformed to have complete faith in God. The imagery of wind, earthquake, and fire represent to us the big, external, noisy, and emotional events of life. If our faith depends upon constant emotional heights or dramatic signs we will always be left wanting more.

Saint John of the Cross uses the term “spiritual gluttony” to describe what happens when we look for God primarily in big, emotional, or miraculous events. He observed that beginners in the spiritual life often become addicted to feeling good during prayer and seeking out intense emotional highs. He argued that when hunt for such sensations we are seeking ourselves, not God.

Elijah came to hear God’s voice not in a massive event, but through a small voice. God does not force Himself on us through overwhelming force. Rather, He speaks to us in the interior quiet of the soul. In order to hear a whisper you have to learn to be quiet and enter into interior silence. Through interior silence we recognize the movement of the Holy Spirit in our life.

The Eucharist serves as the perfect example of such a reality. The Lord does not come upon the altar with thunder and lighting, but through silence. Those who look upon the Eucharist do not see some massive sensation for they look upon bread and wine. Through faith we are able to acknowledge that what we look upon is truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ.

As people of faith we do not need new private revelations or spectacular signs in order to be saved or know of God’s love for us. The fullness of truth has already been handed down to us through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Sacraments. We do not need a dramatic spiritual experience in order to be a person of faith because all we have to focus on is the ordinary.

Elijah didn’t need another display of lightning; he needed rest. He needed to eat the bread that the angel gave him and to listen to that voice that told him to get back to his ordinary mission. This relates well to Saint Peter who was able to walk on water in so far as he kept his sight on Jesus. The moment he shifted his attention to the wind and waves he sunk. It is easy for us to shift our sight to such signs and also take our sight off of Jesus.

As people of faith let us stop chasing after the storm (however it may manifest itself in our life) and instead come to abide in the quiet, sufficient grace that He has already given to each of us. Through such assistance from God we can go back to our ordinary life and do in the words of St. Therese of Lisieux, “ordinary things with extraordinary love.”

18th Sunday of OT Year A Homily

Physical hunger and thirst are used as symbols for spiritual alienation and our deepest human desires. Isaiah 55 addresses an exiled Israel that has been trying to satisfy its deepest desires with things which do not last. The ultimate lesson that is being made known is that the pleasures of this life can never satisfy for we have a much deeper spiritual hunger.

When the Lord came to feed the multitude He transcended the mere desire to feed them physically, but also to provide for the needs of their souls. What was promised to the people in Isaiah has finally come to be fulfilled through Christ and what He gives. The Lord looked upon them and provided for them in order to fill their spiritual hunger.

As would be said by the Lord at the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6, “Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.” This sign that was worked in the presence of this multitude pointed towards the Eucharist and what would be accomplished through it.

The Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. Jesus provided for thousands with the five loves of bread, but also has the power to transform bread into His very self, in order that we and those throughout the world may come to be fed spiritually.

As Isaiah invited, “Come to the waters, you who have no money.” Here we can see that the one who provides for our needs has already done so and that all we have to do is come to Him. Instead of coming to Him with the trust of faith it is so easy to get caught up in our own fears, needs, desires, and busyness to where we fail to look towards the Lord and place our trust in Him.

The Eucharist is not a temporary remedy for hunger. Instead through the Eucharist He offers Himself in order that we may come to be filled. The food that the Israelites would partake of in the desert would eventually leave them hungry while the Lord promised “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

Let us come to pursue Christ and thus the Eucharist for through such a pursuit we are not attempting to fulfill ourself, but to allow this infinite abundance of grace to fill us to the fullest degree. Such a movement is to shift away from self-reliance to surrender as we place our trust in the Lord not just momentarily, but always.

As we approach the altar of sacrifice let us foster such Eucharistic awareness. Such awareness is to be intentional about our life and its relationship to the Eucharist, not just being on autopilot. Praying in preparation for such a gift prior to Mass and in thanksgiving after Mass, making time for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and going to Him in prayer throughout our day to make a spiritual communion. In such manner we learn to be honest with ourself and to come to Him in the midst of our hunger in order that we may come to find our fill.

17th Sunday of OT Year A Homily

A man finds treasure and sells all that he has in order to buy that field. Selling all that one has in order to obtain it is not a burden, but a gain. He acted as such “for the joy it gives him.” Such joy was not just a fleeting emotion for it was a driving force of Christian detachment and self-giving that propelled him forward.

The world’s advice on such an act would be to weigh the cost and then reluctantly surrender yours goods with the hope that it will pay off later. Through such a disposition of mind the sting of loss would be felt. The Gospel is not asking us to make an agonizing sacrifice, but is giving an invitation to obtain something that actually fulfills.

As Saint Augustine writes, “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Each of us has a spiritual hunger that we spend our life attempting to satisfy. Our attention is placed upon status, money, comfort, achievements, and control. This is like the man in the parable who dug in the field attempting to find that which would eventually fulfill.

Upon stumbling upon the treasure his restlessness ceased. He came to recognize that this was what he was made for. When the man found the Kingdom of God (the treasure) his soul came to recognize its true home. His restless heart finally came to find its rest which allowed him to sale all that he owned in order to obtain it “for the joy it gives him.”

As Saint Paul states to the Philippians, “Whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Here he was not pointing towards a tragic loss due to what he was called to give up, but the realization that these things were holding him back.

Wealth, career, reputation, and control are not bad in themselves. The problem arises when we look to them to find our identity, treating them as if they are the true treasure for which our heart longs. By surrendering unhealthy dispositions we are allowing God to be the true treasure of our life.

It is so easy to see the demand of sacrifice, forgiveness, detachment, and living counter culturally solely through the lens of what we are being forced to give up. Faith transcends mere rules to satisfy another, for through embracing the faith to its fullest, we are truly set free in our pursuit of that which brings rest unto our restless hearts.

Let us be propelled forth like this man by “the joy it gives.” The man found the treasure first and then proceeded to obtain it. Likewise, we must find that treasure through prayer, adoration, and scripture. Through such an encounter we will behold God’s goodness and move towards such goodness by conforming our life unto it. This opens the way to small detachments where we fast in minor ways in order to not be controlled by the world, but to live for the Lord our God. Do we desire to live for Him and if so what are we being called upon to surrender “for the joy it gives?”